The Consequences of “Cap and Tax” (Rep. Michael Burgess)

President Obama and Democrat leaders in Congress expect to raise billions of dollars through an unprecedented “cap and tax” proposal. With this money, they plan to accomplish many of their campaign promises and long-standing party goals – health care and education reform, to name a few.

And they may just get their way. Their proposal will raise taxes on American businesses and families by an expected $646 billion over the next 10 years. Coincidentally, that is more than enough to pay for President Obama’s $634 billion “down payment” on an expansion of government-provided health care.

In just a few short years, you may be paying for several others’ health care by simply flipping on a light switch and turning on the coffee pot each morning.

Cap and tax will increase the daily overhead costs for businesses, increase the costs of running our families to school and to work, and it will destroy jobs and businesses unless they are explicitly protected in the language. Energy Secretary Steven Chu even stated that he believes the policy would “disadvantage” the American economy.

Fortunately, this draft legislation is only a draft. We still have time to make significant changes to this bill to make it better, and I intend to do that in subcommittee and committee.

I, too, believe it is important to safeguard our planet and preserve it for future generations, but the proposed cap and tax is radical and the timing is dangerously wrong. It is a broad-sweeping policy change that will do more harm than good. I would argue that, in its current form, this proposal may do more harm to our economy than any bill that is likely to come before Congress for the rest of this year, or perhaps during my natural lifetime.